News Analysis
The productivity software space is expected to reach a value of $79.07 billion in 2024, about $40 billion of it in the U.S., according to Statista figures from late 2023.
The research notes that while Microsoft Office has long dominated the space, the rise of remote work prompted enterprises to consider other cloud-based suites such as Google Workplace, Box, Zoho, Dropbox and others.
Canva Pushes Into the Enterprise
Given the level of competition and the money on the table, it seems unlikely that any new competitors would jump into the fray. However, Australian vendor Canva, better known for its graphic design platform, is pushing into the enterprise space with Canva Enterprise.
The company states the new enterprise subscription is "designed to empower large organizations to easily create high-impact visual content and scale internal collaboration." Canva soft-launched the platform by making it available to the "first one million users who discover[ed] the secret portal" on the homepage. The rest of us will have to wait until August when it goes into general availability.
Enterprise is Canva's productivity platform on steroids, which pulls AI, design, content production and collaboration tools into one centralized platform and under one umbrella account.
It is the logical development of Canva Teams, which the company launched in August 2022 as a paid subscription plan for SMBs. The company claims Teams is used by 130,000 teams around the world.
The Enterprise edition is clearly aiming for broader appeal. It's built in part as an answer to a problem identified in the company's survey of more than 1,300 global CIOs published earlier this year. Over 70% of them pointed to app sprawl — the growth in individual applications used in a workplace — as a pressing challenge when selecting visual content tools. Canva is hardly the first to identify the problem, but it does show the persistence of the issue.
Enterprise comes with a hefty price tag. Canva Teams costs close to $100 per-seat / per-year with a three-person minimum. The Enterprise pricing starts at $300 per-seat / per-year, but a discount for bulk subscriptions can apply. So is it worth it and can it really compete with the already well-established suites in the workplace?
Related Article: Google Workspace Is Coming for Slack and Microsoft Teams
Visual Collaboration Needs, Consolidated
Rivermate CEO Lucas Botzen said at first glance, Enterprise looks like a promising alternative to Google or Microsoft 365, particularly for those working with sales teams, marketing teams, HR teams and creative teams.
The functionality and ease of use make Canva Enterprise convenient for many who are not initially very design-savvy.
“Mashups of the animation features set, video editing, and generative AI, all built by Canva during the last decade, not only equip an end-to-end platform but also facilitate most needs related to creativity in one place,” he said.
The tools allow dynamic content to be made in a way that is relatively useful, particularly in marketing and sales, where the aesthetic value of visuals has a maximum impact on the rate of engagement and conversion.
HR departments and internal communications teams can also benefit by creating more eye-catching training materials and recruitment campaigns. Botzen added that the UX update has met the need for smoother and more efficient user experience to encourage adoption. Here he points specifically to the refreshed interface and simplification of workflows.
“This is great for creative departments by which quicker iteration speed and sharing of IDEO — a methodology developed by Calif.-based IDEO that emphasizes empathy, ideation, prototyping and testing to create innovative solutions that meet user needs — to drive productivity and innovation to new heights,” he said.
Related Article: Why Enterprise Collaboration and Teamwork Is Becoming More Visual
What Enterprise offers
According to Kateryna Odarchenko, political strategist and partner of SIC group USA, the real attraction lies in the fact that Canva is easy to use, even for beginners, and powerful enough for professional designers. This broad appeal contributes to its popularity across various industries, including regional political offices, where it is effectively used for political social media management (SMM).
The Enterprise edition, however, poses new problems. Using Canva’s advanced features, she said, especially those involving AI, requires some skills to create the correct prompts and commands.
“Without this expertise, the results may not always meet expectations. Despite this, Canva remains a competitive option, particularly for tasks that involve design and visual content creation, thanks to its intuitive interface and comprehensive suite of tools," she said.
With the Enterprise edition, Canva is clearly aiming for bigger organizations and bigger markets. To do this it will need a lot of muscle to compete with established vendors in the space.
That said, Canva’s new design workspaces offer a viable alternative to Google, Microsoft and Adobe workplace tools, Vamshi Mugala, a senior data scientist with Koch Industries, said. He noted some of the tools included in the new offering are transformational and called out others as areas for improvement.
Customizable Workspaces
Canva's "Work Kits" provide industry-specific templates tailored for different departments including HR, sales, marketing and creative teams. These fully customizable and brandable kits ensure consistency and professionalism across all materials, he said.
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Enhanced Collaboration
Canva Docs now include features such as suggested editing, document outlines and organized commenting, making real-time collaboration more efficient. Additionally, Mugala points to integration with tools like Asana, Monday, SharePoint and HubSpot to streamline workflows.
AI-Powered Design Tools
The newly upgraded Canva Magic Studio boasts features like Text to Graphic, AI-powered photo and video editing tools, and enhanced AI design technology. With these tools, users can create high-quality designs quickly and efficiently, leveraging AI to reduce manual effort.
Among the other strengths, he said, is the new UX driven by the new interface. Canva’s drag-and-drop interface and extensive template library make it accessible to users with varying levels of design expertise. This is a significant advantage over the more complex interfaces of Adobe’s professional tools, although Mugala adds a note of caution here.
“While Canva’s tools are robust, they may not yet match the depth and specificity of Adobe’s offerings for professional graphic designers and video editors,” he added.
Enterprise Integration
Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer deeply integrated productivity tools (e.g., email, calendars, cloud storage) that are essential for many enterprises. Canva’s integrations are improving, but it may take time to reach the same level of ecosystem integration.
Canva was founded in 2012 and has raised $560 million to date, giving it a current valuation of roughly $26 billion. While it clearly has a ways to go before it matches Microsoft 365, for example, it may be that by avoiding the complexity of other productivity suites, its new Enterprise edition will be attractive for enterprises looking for alternatives to the bigger vendors.